The 'Deep Waters' crew was left wondering why Chimaev seemed fine with losing to Sean Strickland on Saturday
While Sean Strickland again shocked the world by defeating Khamzat Chimaev to capture the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 328 on Saturday, the post-fight reactions from the fighters were nearly as interesting as the result itself.
While Strickland and Chimaev saw the build to their fight colored by bad blood, vile insults and threats of literally killing one another before they even stepped in the Octagon, the fighters looked very different on fight night. From frequent glove touching during the fight to Chimaev willingly accepting the official decision and even wrapping the belt around Strickland's waist, the bad blood was left feeling like little more than a marketing ploy.
Most odd, however, may have been Chimaev's overall demeanor. Always an intense fighter, Chimaev seemed fine with losing the razor-thin split decision for his first career professional defeat.
Chimaev's reaction stood out to the crew on "Deep Waters" during their recap show on Monday.
"You can't call it a robbery and neither guy can be mad," Din Thomas said on the show. "But it's weird that Khamzat accepted it so easily."
Dustin Poirier chimed in, saying Chimaev's teammate, Arman Tsarukyan, showed more emotion than the now-former champion.
"Like I said in the back, Arman was more upset that he lost the decision than Khamzat was," Poirier said.
"It looked like Arman was more upset that he lost the decision than Khamzat was." The Deep Waters crew reacts to Chimaev's demeanor after the fight pic.twitter.com/Ha42p8eI8t
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Jorge Masvidal was even more pointed in his criticism, saying that Chimaev should have lost the second round 10-8.
After securing a takedown in the first round, but doing little of note on the ground, Chimaev looked tired in the second. After Strickland easily avoided a takedown in that round, Chimaev simply rolled to his back and welcomed Strickland to take top position.
"He didn't do what he wanted to do, from the start," Masvidal said. "When he wanted to implement the wrestling, take him down and control him, and he wasn't able to do that in the first round. He red-lined himself so hard trying to do it in the first round that, in the second round, he had to take a break. In my opinion, when somebody drops guard like that, it's a 10-8 round automatically. You're conceding to this other individual for whatever reason, whether you got hit or are tired, you can't do that."
Strickland is now on his second stint as middleweight champion, twice winning title fights in which he entered as a considerable underdog, while Chimaev is back to the drawing board and discussing moving up in weight to light heavyweight after losing the belt.
Deep Waters streams live every Monday at noon on the UFC on Paramount+ YouTube channel.
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